Frank Chachulski, The QC-Manager of 3A Media Produktion und Handel GmbH, approached us with an email today, making a strong statement about the production of 3A Media:

"The truth is that SINCE beginning of 2003 most manufacturers are using false MIDīs in order to get more compatible. Some drive manufacturers even ask for money in order to implement new MIDs into their drives. We are talking of several 10 thousands dollar per manufacturer or MID.

But 3A Media had never and will never produce discs with wrong MIDs! That question is not at issue."

As we can learn from Frank's statement, the motivation to use an incorrect MID can vary. The drive manufacturers have a role to play in this as well.

I believe they stand for "Media ID" or in other words, when you use certian products (most are freeware) they tell you a ID so you can see who produced the disk. Most people recommend Ritek and Verbatim but, I forgot what there IDs are.
If they fake the ID, people will think "I have a spindle of Ritek CDs (or DVDs more likely) and they suck, they are worse then Princo" (IMO, the WORST brand of CDs/DVDs ever made) because some company put the Ritek ID on the disk and it is really a Princo.

And they do this so, what, people don't have to update their firmware as often? More likely so the company doesn't have to spend the extra money to update and test their firmware or eat up bandwidth from people downloading the new firmware from their site. What can you do?

It's a question of money. You can SELL discs of 8X media , a lot easier than discs of 2X . And , many people will figure it's their writer , not the media. They will be happy , if it just burns right.
With the double layer media just around the corner , in terms of price , manufactures may want to unload stocks of old media , at higher prices.